Customer Review
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This book is founded on lies, I would know., January 23, 2012
By DannyBIIThis review is from: A Life Gone Awry: My Story of the Elan School (Kindle Edition)
I have bought the book and read the book many times trying to get the point of why Wayne Kernochan feltb he needed to lie in order to write and then publish this memoir. It took me months but then it finally hit me, Wayne never actually went through Elan he wrote this story for others. I have so much background evidence to support this theory (truth)and the biggest piece came from a resident that I actually was institutionalized with from 1973 till 1975 and then was placed at Elan with him in the mid part of 1975. He had been blending in the woodwork on the various sites we survivors frequent. What got my surprise was this guy was on all the sites, blogs and facebook groups I had been around,so he knew I was there.I know he remembered me (even though he will not admit this)so why not introduce himself again after all these years. His intro could have been pro or con but he chose to hide from me.
The book has plenty of errors when it comes to little things like the plane ride Wayne says he took. He couldn't even get the pilot's physical identification right nor the color of the plane. In 1978 the pilot for Elan was man most employees of Elan knew well. He was also a electrical contractor. The pilot did not wear a uniform with a hat...lol. Sorry this guy would not have been caught dead in a outfit like Wayne described.
The inaccuracies go on ad infinitum throughout the Book. Why? Because Wayne took liberties with the truth thinking no one would argue with him. Why?? Because he had the backing of many Elan survivors.
Wayne characterized himself as a poor white kid from Connecticut that the State subsidized his residency at Elan. Well if this was true then Elan would have never sent a plane to pick him up because the State of Connecticut would not have paid for it. Remember Wayne is poor so his family couldn't afford the leasing of the aircraft. Elan had their own Cessna airplane. The fuel and pilot were not cheap. Elan never picked up a child without being reimbursed. This is Joe Ricci we are talking about here.
Wayne also lies in great detail when he describes the violence that Daniel Bennison supposedly commits.
I am Daniel Bennison and I have chosen to stand up for myself here and make sure that every one knows there is another story here that starts in the late fall of 2009 and come to a end when this memoir is published in 2011.
Elan members have battled with me for some time now because at 17 years old I chose to stay at Elan and work because I had no other option. There wasn't a home to go to. I was a resident from 6/75 till 1/77. I worked as staff from 1/77 till 4/78 and from 4/78 till 8/78 in other capacities. I left Elan for good in 8/78.
from late 2009 till 2011 there has been bitter resentments between some members of Elan and myself. Wayne used this dysfunction to his advantage and concocted absurd stories of abuse. His first one was that I dragged a girl around tied to the back of my car in the Elan parking lot, another is I raped a girl while I was staff, another was I sodomized Wayne and another young man while they were in the facility I worked at, he said this on a radio show LA BLOG Radio Show (Susan Schofield) Sunday morning. If you go to the Fornits Elan Forum [...] you will see exactly what I have been dealing with, you also have to go to the Open Free For All Forum [...] and read some of the filthiest abusive attacking comments I have ever read. This is where Wayne and his friends hide behind fake usernames to get back at me for criticizing his book.
Guys I can go on. I have been attacked for so long because I stand up for myself that I am numb. I will continue to advocate for Elan survivors because I am one. We do not deserve to be misrepresented by plagiarizers and phonies.
Last but not least Wayne told us long ago that he had witnesses 4 to be exact and he had written testimony from all of them. Well, you guessed it. We never got to see any of it or hear from any of them.
I wish you all the best and please for everyones sake be objective and fair with this memoir. Wayne I don't think truly understands the damage he has inflicted on survivors he lied about in this book. Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
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NO ,not in the least , this review by Danny Bennison is simply an attack designed to take the heat off of the Elan School and himself.
His review is simply a pack of lies.
First lie, of the many that will be broken down. Danny Bennison says and has posted thru out the web that he began his employement at the elan School on 1-77, he became an adult on 3-1-77. He further states on the web that he left in November of 1978. He worked his way up into the inner circle of Elan by becoming an assistant director at Elan .He doen't want people to know that he WAS an assistant director at the Elan school, by the way he writes his review of Wanye Kernochan's book. He also tries to mislead people into believing that he was "just " a kid when he worked there, when he was employeed as an adult for most of the time he that worked for this horribly abusive place. He was paid to work there and abuse human beings.
Danny Bennison we will go on with the break down of your lies. We all, survivors ,thank you for helping Wayne Kernochan promote his book. If you weren't such a sick deluded abusing inhuman lyin freak, we would see it as a good thing but in your offhand way of abusing elan survivors , who you yourself deem not to be survivors. It is by doing this you are inadverntently making people aware of this book and what it was like to live and be subjected to the emotional abuse and physical abuse that went on in your precious elan that you love and defend.
There are survivors of the elan school because of the serial sadistic abuse of the Elan School , there are many human beings that did not survive elan and are emotional cripples ,in prison or worse dead from suicide. Danny Bennison helped create survivors of the Elan School , and he tries to minimize and deny this fact. Danny bennison abuses survivors to this day. His abuses can be found all over the internet.
And for that Danny Bennison, we true elan survivors thank you. Asshole !